"What did I say?" Luke asked, sitting on the couch. Had he just messed up with his son once again? He knew things weren't perfect between he and Lucky, and perhaps they never would be. But the last thing he'd expected was for him to be upset by Faison's death.

"You didn't say anything," Laura said, gently reassuring him as she took his hand in hers. She smoothed her fingers lightly over his worn skin. "He's just....he's lost so much Luke...he's just finding his way back and he's a little confused right now...that's all it is."

Luke sighed, leaning his head back against the couch. A moment of silence passed between them before he spoke again. "I had to do it Laura...there was no other option for me."

Laura simply nodded her head, not questioning his judgment in the slightest. "I'm not blaming you Luke....and neither is Lucky................you know I would have done the same."

Yet another long moment passed between them, this one longer than the first as they both sat breathing, not fully comprehending the last week of their lives.

"I saw the body Laura," Luke said then. Seemingly out of nowhere.

Her eyes immediately welled up, her bottom lip trembling. "I saw it too....Damnit! How? Luke, how?!...Luke how did they do this? How did they convince us that our son was dead?!....My baby boy was locked up in some cell for months and I didn't know it! I didn't feel it....I....."

Luke moved closer to her, enveloping her in his arms as she teetered on the edge of hysteria. He should have never brought it up. He knew her emotions were like a raw nerve right now. "Ssh...darlin' I know. I know..."

"I always felt it Luke," she whispered, her head on his shoulder as he smoothed his hand along her back, over her long strands. Her sobs softened a bit. "I always knew when Lucky was in trouble...how did I not know this time? I'm his mother! I'm supposed to - "

"Sweetheart, you're human," Luke said pulling away a bit to look into her eyes. "You saw someone that could have very well been your son lying on a gurney in the morgue...how were you supposed to know?....Nobody could have survived that fire."

Laura shook her head, the guilt overriding her sense of logic. "No...I should've known...It's only because I drove him away...I drove him away and we were separated for so long...so maybe, maybe that's why I lost that sixth sense I had...maybe..."

"Laura! Stop this!" Luke shouted, shaking her lightly. "We can both beat ourselves up until the cows come home. That isn't gonna give our son back the eight months of his life that's he's lost and it for damn sure ain't gonna give either of us the answer that we want! An answer that makes sense!"

She breathed in deeply then, her breath catching as she nodded in agreement. Luke moved in, hugging her close once again. He wanted to stay this way forever, holding her for a lifetime, but she was no longer his to hold. "So," he said quickly, breaking away. "You have to get back to Wyndewierd before Steffy puts out the bat signal for ya?"

Laura smiled weakly, shaking her head. "No...I'm staying here tonight. Chances are Lucky will be sleeping here tonight and I want to be here for him when he comes home...he stayed over at Elizabeth's last night...but I think tonight he might be here."

Luke nodded and looked down at his shoes quickly, wondering if he should stay as well. 'No,' he thought to himself. 'Just because Lucky's back...that doesn't mean things are....doesn't mean things are like they were.'

"Alright," he said suddenly, walking towards the door. He stopped suddenly as he held the door open. "You're a great mother Laura. You always were...and you always will be."

She smiled as her eyes welled up again. "Thank you," she said, almost inaudibly as she watched him walk away. "Thank you."

~~~~~~~~~

Lucky had been silent the entire walk home, the only signs he was with her at all: the sound of his breath, his hand in hers, and the occasional kicking up of snow. Had it been an accident? That questioned plagued his mind more than any other. There were plenty of questions, but that one...that one made him shutter to his very core. What if it hadn't been an accident? What if Elizabeth had tried to kill herself? 'God...please let me be wrong about this...please, please, please tell me it really was an accident....Elizabeth and I have always been honest with each other...but...God...can I believe it when she tells me that it was...I honestly don't know what to do here....'

She wondered what he was thinking. He'd barely said a word since the boxcar. He had said that it was getting too cold there to talk, so they'd left. Yet they hadn't said a word in the past fifteen minutes. Of course having his hand in hers again was more wonderful that words could describe, but even still; he felt like he wasn't even there. 'He's thinking about that night,' she thought, her memory traveling back to that night in the car. She could hear the DJ's voice floating through the radio. She could hear that song she had always loved so much. 'He wants to know if I tried to kill myself...I didn't though...I mean...I didn't exactly try to kill myself...I mean...God...see this is just complicated Lucky...this is not a question I can just answer..just like that...with a yes or a no...it's not just....of course it is Liz. Who are you trying to kid? Did you try to kill yourself that night? Is that what you wanted to do?'

Liz looked around as they entered her room, shaking off the thoughts that frightened her. Taking her to places she didn't want to go. She suddenly noticed her room was spotless. 'I guess Gram got tired of looking at the mess...she made the bed too...oh jeez...I hope...no...there's no way she'd know...so what though? I mean if she did know...would you really care Elizabeth?....No..not really.'

She turned towards Lucky as he eyed the bed as well. She wondered if he was thinking the same thing she was. Whether they could make love again, right here, right now, and have all their problems disappear? Would it help? 'Would it hurt to try?' Liz thought as she closed the space between them, suprising him with a sweet and gentle kiss.

Love me when nobody else can see

Touch my soul, then treat me like I am a stranger

This is not the way I want to feel

Should have known a love this strong would bring some danger

Lucky sighed against her mouth as her gentle kiss turned into something more. Her lips parting and her tongue rushing in to meet his in an exquisite dance. His eyebrows furrowed almost as if he were pain as her hands ran up the sides of his body. Her fingertips curling the fabric of his shirt into her small and pleading hands. 'Don't do this to me now Elizabeth,' Lucky thought as his legs disobeyed his commands. As they backed them both closer to the bed behind her. 'We need to talk...we can't do this now....ooh God, Elizabeth.'

Slingshots

Whisper

My tear drops unanswered

What am I to you?

Once on the bed, she kneeled in front of him as he stood next to her. Still safely on solid ground. 'Keep standing,' he thought to himself. 'Don't get on that bed...' Lucky's thoughts drifted off once again as her palms slid up his chest and slowly began their descent down again by unfastening each button. Her lips left his mouth only to press softly against every square inch of flesh as it was uncovered. His head rolled back, and he stared glassy eyed at the ceiling as her lips burned his cool stomach. He felt as if he might fall at any moment, he was so intoxicated with want for her.

Slingshots

You forgot my kisses

Don't miss this

What am I to you?

Liz felt his hands tangle themselves in her hair as she kissed his perfectly, muscled stomach. Funny how she hadn't noticed how gorgeous he really was the night before. She hadn't noticed much of anything the night before. She'd been too entranced by the feeling of his hands on her skin. She placed a tender kiss on the inch long scar that crossed his abdomen. The scar she'd put there over a year ago. Everything about him was beautiful.

I want you so bad...what's wrong with me

I want you so bad...what's wrong with - with you baby

She noticed now, how he tried his best not to touch her, aside from the combing of his fingers through her hair. She needed to correct that. She rose before him, her hands quickly grasping the sides of his face, kissing him fiercely as he still stood almost an inch away from the bed. She neared the edge and pressed her body firmly against his, feeling every inch of him. Feeling his body react to hers almost immediately. 'God Lucky....please...just forget about talking...I don't want to talk...'

But if it's all in my head

I'll find a way to make it end

It's magic but it's so tragic...

He felt her hands work their way inside his open shirt as she began to push if off of his shoulders. "Elizabeth," he whispered, pulling away slightly. "Elizabeth...sweetie...we can't..."

"Lucky..." she moaned, her lips on his chest now.

Lucky bit his lip as he tried to muster the strength to make her stop. To form a coherent thought. To stop her from doing what his own body desperately wanted to participate in. He wrapped his hands gently around her wrists, stilling her movements. "Sweetie please," he panted. "Please...we need to talk."

Liz sighed and ran a hand through her hair frustratedly as she flopped back upon the bed, bringing her knees up to her chest. She watched him as he sat down on the edge of the bed, his back to her. His hands busying themselves with the rebuttoning his shirt. "Elizabeth?" He asked suddenly, his hands resting in his lap. "I need you to be honest with me."

"I told you everything, Lucky!" Elizabeth snapped, rising from the bed and walking over to the window. 'Leave it alone Lucky...please...I just want us to be happy,' she thought. 'That's all I want.'

She sighed and rolled her head back against his chest when she felt him come up behind her suddenly, his arms encircling her waist. She didn't mean to snap at him. Her emotions were just out of control right now. If there were one person in the world that didn't deserve to spoken to that way, it was him. She felt her throat tighten when he whispered seven words in her ear: "You know I love you don't you?"

Liz nodded her head silently, as the tears sprang forth. She tried wiping them away. "Yes," she answered then her voice coming out garbled by emotion.

He turned her around then, forcing her to look into his eyes. "Then trust me....please Elizabeth. Just trust me."

"Lucky I do!" She said, quickly walking out of arms and away from his prying eyes. "You know I trust you more than anyone in the world! I trust you with my life!"

Lucky breathed in deeply. "Then do that Elizabeth...trust me with your life...right now....Elizabeth, I need you to tell me whether or not that accident was an accident .....Sweetie, I'm not going to judge you or try and make you feel bad...I just...Elizabeth...I just..." he shook his head, searching for the words to make her understand.

Elizabeth sank down into the chair at her vanity and turned away from him, looking into her mirror. She suddenly felt a sharp urge to break the glass. To shatter everything into a million tiny pieces. Itty bitty pieces, just like the jagged fragments of her life. It all had to break at some point right? Everything she cared about broke eventually and threatened to break her as well.

"Lucky..." she began, her words coming out calmly, collectedly. "I don't....I don't know what to tell you...and I don't know what to tell you because I honestly don't know. Did I plan on killing myself that night?....No, I'm pretty sure of that...Did I mind if I died?......Well....now that's an entirely different question isn't it?"

Lucky licked his lips and closed his eyes. He wanted to die at that very moment. Wanted to die for having caused her so much pain. Wanted to die because the sound of her voice at this very moment was almost unbearable. She sounded vacant. 'God...she sounds like that night...the night of the rape when she told Aunt Bobbie that she hurt all over..' I never wanted to hear her voice like that again. Ever.

He took a deep, steadying breath and slowly walked toward her, kneeling before her when he got to where she sat. She looked down at him, her eyes searching his for something. An antidote for all the pain. He silently touched the ends of her hair, seemingly transfixed by them as they slipped smoothly through his fingertips. "We're gonna be ok," he said then, whispering to her, looking straight into her soul and meaning every word he spoke. "I promise...we're gonna be ok."

Song lyrics from: Slingshots by Morley

Elizabeth watched his face as the last golden rays of sunlight played over his features, the sun setting outside. The glow from the window poured in, illuminating him. He resembled a sleeping angel. That's exactly what he was. An angel that had been returned. Sent once again to watch over her. To protect her, if even from herself.

His lips twitched once, as if an insect of some kind had flown past them and she smiled as the muscles in his face relaxed once again. It had been a long day. A day full of new discoveries. A tiring day. Another day that hadn't broken them.

How was it that she still doubted the strength of their love? How was it that she still monitored every word out of her mouth? That she still lived in fear that one day soon she'd say something that would cause him to leave her? This time not because some bastard kidnapped him, but because he'd gotten up and left on his own free will.

'He's not going anywhere,' she thought to herself, watching as his chest moved up and down. 'You just told him that you didn't care if you lived or died and he's still here...Liz that's gotta count for something...but wait till he finds out about Nikolas though...but...that's not your fault is it?...You didn't ask him to love you...but...No! Don't think about this now...that doesn't matter anymore...Lucky's back and everything's gonna be fine.'

Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted as she heard Lucky moan something. The sound indistinguishable, but most assuredly words. She leaned in closer as he mumbled the words again.

"I wanna go home....please...I just...I just wanna go home." His eyebrows knit together in pain as he murmured the phrase again. His bottom lip trembling.

Liz pulled back immediately, her hand covering her mouth and tears welling in her eyes. She shook her head silently, as she brushed the tears away. She could not believe how selfish, how self-absorbed she'd been. She mentally cursed herself for not seeing how much pain he had to have been in all these months. How much pain he was STILL in.

It was so easy sometimes to forget that he had his own problems. He was so self assured, so strong...even when he had his own demons to face. He was so good at knowing what to do for her. Always knowing how to make it better for her. Yet, he needed someone to be strong for him too. He needed her to be strong. 'But I'm not Lucky...I'm just not,' she thought.

She placed a chaste kiss against his temple, brushing his soft strands off of his forehead. Elizabeth knew she wouldn't be able to bear a night without him. Not after being away from him for months, not after being with him so completely the night before. Yet she knew she had to wake him. She had to let him go home and be with his family. Surely they had missed him just as much as she had, and certainly he wanted to spend time with them as well. She was being selfish about that too.

Elizabeth kissed him again. This time, sweetly upon the lips, hoping to wake him from his nap. He slowly responded to her, his lips pressing against hers as his hands found their way to her hair, stroking the back of her head. They settled upon her neck right before she pulled away.

"Hi," he said simply, as he watched her slowly retreat. Her lips were a masterpiece. The artist was definitely the art.

"Hi sleepyhead," she said, rolling to her side and propping up on one elbow. How was it that after having what was obviously a nightmare, he could look so peaceful. The way he grinned at her was infectious. Now was not the time to bring up what she'd heard. He was too happy.

"I'm sorry for falling asleep on you," he said, groggily facing her.

"It's ok. I forgive you," she whispered. "It's been a long day."

"Yeah," he sighed, his head hitting the pillow once again.

A moment of silence lapsed between them as Liz mustered the courage she needed to do what she had to do. To give him a little peace of mind.

"You can go home Lucky," she stated, watching as Lucky sat up. "I mean...Gram's here...I heard her come in."

Lucky raised his eyebrows, not understanding where the statement had come from. Liz sensed confusion and quickly explained herself.

"Lucky I know you're only staying here because you think I need a baby-sitter...I know there are people that missed you just as much as I did."

Liz smiled as his hand came up to caress her cheek and his words sweetly embraced her heart. "Yeah...but there's nobody I missed more than you."

She kissed the inside of his palm and he leaned in quickly, kissing her softly as she sighed into his mouth. There would never be day when he did not love this feeling. He'd dreamt of it so often all those months, and now...here she was in the flesh. No longer a dream. No longer a reminder of things past, but of things future. No matter what happened that would never change. They would have the future they always wanted. They'd come too far to let anything stand in there way now. Anything.

The truth was that Liz was not the only one leery of having Lucky leave her side. The word "home," no longer held much meaning for him. Had it ever?

Lucky blinked quickly, as all the places he'd ever been in his life, all the houses he'd ever lived in seemed to swim through his mind. Like an endless scene from an old black and white movie. Where was home? The only bed he'd slept in since he'd been back was Elizabeth's'. He'd gone from the tiny bed in a steel room, to the chair in Elizabeth's hospital room, to now: this room, this bed. With the only person he really wanted to be with.

She broke the kiss some moments later, knowing he was only trying to be sweet. Knowing he was only trying to be Lucky, and knowing that his brain was somewhere else at the moment. "Are you sure you aren't just afraid I'm going to freak out, if you leave?" She asked.

He didn't need to know just how frightened she was of him climbing out of her window and never coming back. How frightened she was of losing him to Faison, to herself, to whatever tragedy struck next.

"No," Lucky said quickly. "I'm afraid I'm gonna."

He smiled as she laughed out loud. One of the only genuine bursts of happiness he'd seen in a while. Little did she know he was only half joking. His eyes saddened again as the joy quickly dissipated from her eyes, her smile falling.

What could he say to make her realize the danger was over? He desperately yearned to free her from the constant state of panic she seemed to live in. "Faison's dead," Lucky said then, penetrating the stillness of the room.

Liz looked up quickly. "What?" She asked, almost afraid to believe her ears.

Lucky swallowed and looked down. "My dad," he began. "My dad....shot him...I found out this morning."

Liz breathed in deeply. A large part of her wanting to get up and dance in joy, but another part trying to understand the look on his face, the tone in his voice. He couldn't possibly be sorry could he? The bastard deserved to die! Thank God, Luke had killed him.

"Lucky?" She asked, moving closer to him as he sat, seemingly transported to another time. Another place, back in that room she supposed. "This is...this is a good thing right? I mean...Faison being dead....this is good?"

Lucky looked up at her then, shaken from his reverie. His eyes softening at the sound of her voice. "Yeah," he said, hugging her close. "Yeah...it's a good thing."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Luke sighed as he pulled the old key from his pocket, wondering just how his sweet Helena was doing. All tied up with nowhere to go. He jiggled the key in the rusted lock that sat embedded in the cabin door. The door swung open slightly, giving way to his weight as he pushed against it.

Nothing. Complete nothingness.

His eyes frantically scoured the small room from top to bottom. He started to shake as the feeling of dread and fury overtook him. 'No,' he thought. 'No.'

He stalked past the empty chair, with its cut ropes dangling from the arms, and draped about the legs. He peered into the kitchen, no Helena. He turned around searching the room once again, no Helena. He screamed then as he picked up the chair, hurling it towards the window. The sound of his voice and the shattering glass meeting the air in one foul cry.

 ~~~~~~~~~

Nikolas walked down the hall to his uncle's study, hoping to talk to him about his recent run-in with Lucky. Someone had to make sense of this for him. Someone had to tell him he wasn't crazy. That he wasn't an evil person for wanting what he wanted: Liz.

He felt like he had betrayed his brother, but hadn't he been betrayed as well? Not by Lucky, but by fate? Whatever divine force has stepped in and nipped he and Liz right in the bud.

Sure she hadn't been in love with him, but it would have happened eventually right? All it would have taken was a little more time. Maybe even now that's all it would take. 'Yeah right Nikolas,' he thought. 'There's that little matter of Lucky being back that you keep forgetting.'

Nikolas stopped in his tracks as he heard the voice on the other side of the door. The one that wasn't his uncle's. He shook his head at the realization that Stephan had obviously taken her in. He looked down at the floor wondering whether he should go in. Did he want to face his grandmother? Did he even want to see her after the despicable thing she'd done? No. He had no desire to hear her justify her actions. Yet, he still needed to know. He needed to know how she could kidnap Lucky, making everyone think he was dead. He needed to know what gave her the right to play with people's lives like they were puppets in her own little show, to play God and ruin everyone's lives.